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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: koan who wrote (251469)5/30/2014 12:07:13 PM
From: Katelew  Read Replies (2) of 542177
 
I would agree that compassion and empathy are in our genes but perhaps there are markedly different levels among people. Psychologists claim that the distinguishing characteristic of the sociopathic personality is an absence of empathy. Large studies suggest that genes play a substantial role in the creation of the sociopathic personality. A NEAR absence of empathy is considered one of the distinguishing characteristics of a narcsissistic personality disorder.

This in turn might suggest that among the remainder of society, those considered as having normal or benign personality development, empathy levels might naturally vary quite a bit from one person to the next. Think of the audience at the end of a heartwrenching drama. Some are sobbing, some are stony-faced, some actually fell asleep..lol.

FWIW, I read an interesting book recently on sociopathy and learned that sociopaths are deeply unhappy people and frequently seek out therapists. Their common complaint is an extreme level of boredom, of all things, and many become thrill seekers, often to dangerous levels, in an effort to relieve these miserable levels of boredom. If you think about it life would indeed be very boring if one felt no emotional connection to other people. With most of us our richest memories are those of activities done with other people. Even loners who read voraciously want books that stir them emotionally.

As for empathy levels, it appears that empathy resides in a particular area of the brain and can be somewhat measured with scans. I'm going to search for the link and get back to you.
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